Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

Only caveat to positive tests slowing is (and Nate Silver pointed this out) that testing itself has been slowing down again. The data on testing is incomplete though, and varies state to state.

I hope it's true though.

[iam416]

[Whitley]

Trump, as always, is his worst enemy.


So the US has a shortage of masks, it is being reported, because we sent a lot of them to the Wuhan region back on 2/7 (source Pompeo twitter). Which was part of the Obama administration strategic buildup against something like this. It is fine to help out China, but how could you not replenish these supplies? Now, states and the federal government were competing for PPE and prices went through the roof <source Gov. of IL in NBC News interview>(until he actually used the Stafford act and told GM to make ventilators).

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/trump-blames-hospitals-for-coronavirus-mask-shortages.html

Then he blames health care workers and hospitals for mask shortages.

It is fine to help China with masks, but the second you do that HOW do you not buy masks to replenish the stockpile that you just drew down from? Did he honestly think that this virus was not going to make its way over here?


And the amazing thing is that the corpse that is Joe Biden (I've seen more life out of Bernie from Weekend at Bernie's) is going to lose the general (unless Trump blows it with the pandemic) election to a walking ego.

[Ghengis Jon]

New level of self absorption as insists the stimulus checks go out with HIS signature, not the Sec of Treasury (or whoever). Only affects those without direct deposit.

What a surprise, his ego is more important than anything else.

[Ghengis Jon]

For those working at home and conference calling your colleagues: Everyone can see you. (Watch the gal on the far left.)

https://twitter.com/rahm3sh/status/1241476313367613440

[AlabamAlum]

[Ghengis Jon]

As an aerosol, does that mean inhalation is more of a danger (ie need for masks) than previously thought?

[AlabamAlum]

Just two weeks ago the head of Emergency at Wuhan Central hospital went public, saying authorities had stopped her and her colleagues from warning the world. She has now disappeared, her whereabouts unknown.

https://twitter.com/60mins/status/1244211674439016449?s=21

[AlabamAlum]

As an aerosol, does that mean inhalation is more of a danger (ie need for masks) than previously thought?

Yes. This is an invisible mist that can hang in the air for a time as opposed to a droplet that was coughed or sneezed out and made contact.

[iam416]

Once you accept the fact that the tidal wave is coming, it's coming without haste and that we have only a few plastic children's buckets to stop it, then it really doesn't matter. I deem that news further confirmation that we are proper fucked by June with the silver lining being that the football season may be salvaged.

[iam416]

And now, when I ride my bike, I purposefully avoid the bike path. There are a fuckton of people out. I don't think I'm going to contact any of them, but it's a narrow path and I do think those unfit motherfuckers are coughing and I don't want to ride through their mist. So, I've been sticking to roads. It'd be a pretty damn bad break to ride through a mist of corona hanging on the side of a road.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Took a look at Louisiana's numbers from yesterday and they seem to be positive as well. Both new cases and new deaths slowed significantly since Thursday/Friday.

The mortality rate in Louisiana is awfully high though: over 4.2%. Unclear if that's because a significantly higher proportion of the people getting sick are already in poor health or because testing has slowed down.

[iam416]

Just two weeks ago the head of Emergency at Wuhan Central hospital went public, saying authorities had stopped her and her colleagues from warning the world. She has now disappeared, her whereabouts unknown.

"I just want to take this time to commend China on their excellent and outstanding response to the Wuhan virus as well as their incredible generosity in providing safety equipment to numerous unprepepared, backwards Western countries. What the great Xi has managed to do in cutting cases down to about 30 per day is truly a miracle and outstanding. China is an absolute model for all other so-called "free" countries to follow."

-- WHO, Various US News Outlets, Every Chinese News Outlet

[Ghengis Jon]

When someone coughs, the expelled moisture is in what typical breakdown? 99% droplets, 1% aerosol?

https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/modes-of-transmission-of-virus-causing-covid-19-implications-for-ipc-precaution-recommendations

[iam416]

The mortality rate in Louisiana is awfully high though: over 4.2%. Unclear if that's because a significantly higher proportion of the people getting sick are already in poor health or because testing has slowed down.

I think one of the things you're seeing is that initial/early mortality rates are varying wildly due (IMO) in large part to origins of the outbreak. Washington had a hugely high initial rate because the epicenter was a nursing home. I think Italy was hit harder in the elderly population, whereas Germany's initial cases were mostly younger people.

As the tidal wave moves on, though, I fully expect a regression to the mean. Unfortunately, we don't know what the fucking mean is.